West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has revealed in an interview with Croatian newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija, that the Hammers were keen on Everton new man Sandro Ramirez once they got wind of his availability.
In his words: “Ramirez from Malaga came in, he was in Barcelona and we wanted him but he chose Everton.”
The Spaniard, who was also linked with Newcastle and Tottenham arrived Merseyside from Malaga earlier this summer for £5.2million, and is expected to fill the big void Romelu Lukaku’s exit created.
While Sandro has the potential to do so, Bilic believes he has different skill-sets to the Belgian.
The one-time Everton player claimed: “He is a quick player and has no traits like Lukaku. They lost [Lukaku’s] strength, but gained [Ramirez’s] speed.”
Having struggled to make the grade at Camp Nou, Sandro went to Malaga where he indeed cut his teeth in the business of scoring goals.
The 22-year-old banged in 14 strikes and assisted 3 others in 30 La Liga appearances last term, and he quickly caught the eyes of a host of European sides as a result.
Sandro made his Premier League debut at the weekend against Stoke City, but while he didn’t get off the mark in front of goal, his pace was too much for the visitors to handle.
With reports claiming the Spanish senior national coaching crew is keeping an eye on him, much more can be expected of Sandro this term.
